"Starve your bins" says London Mayor

The Recycle for London campaign has joined forces with London Mayor Ken Livingstone to get us lazy Londoners to put three times as much of our waste in our recycling bins than we currently do.The advertising campaign,  launched on 16 October, aims to make us more informed about what we can recycle and how, and encourage us to help bridge the gap between our good recycling intentions, our actual actions and the Government's requirements.

To meet the Government's landfill directive, Londoners have to recycle (or, unrealistically, cut) 60 per cent of all our waste by 2020. At the moment we recycle just 20 per cent of our rubbish.

Apparently this goal would be manageable if only we walked our talk. According to a survey by Recycle for London, 93 per cent of Londoners claim to recycle paper 'all the time', 90 per cent recycle glass 'all the time', 88 per cent recycle cans and tins 'all the time' and 87 per cent recycle card 'all the time'. Recycle for London's said: " Londoners consistently tell us they are recycling most of their rubbish but the reality is they can recycle a lot more."

Ken Livingstone added: "If we don't recycle, our rubbish gets tipped into vast landfill sites in the home counties which are fast running out, or it gets burnt -- adding to our contribution to climate change. I am today calling on all Londoners to live up to their claims and wishes and get recycling."

Yep, it's time to put those bins on a diet.

Photo: Fran Evans

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